World's Costliest Ski Chalets

The most expensive ski home in the world, the $135 million Hala Ranch in Aspen, has a master suite with a beauty and barber room for massages, pedicures and styling. There's a tennis court, indoor swimming pool and a mechanical shop with a car wash and gasoline pumps. Its 95 acres are under constant video surveillance, and its 15 bedrooms have views of the surrounding mountains.

Not a bad place to warm your feet. Yet this home is only one of several fantasy ski retreats--some for sale, others for rent--found by Forbes.com. We compiled our list by scouring listings and talking to brokers in the know.

As you might expect, most of the finest homes were in Aspen, Lake Tahoe or the Swiss Alps. Tranquility, a $100 million, eight-building compound in Zephyr Cove, Nev., sits on 210 acres of land and has nine bedrooms, 14 full and five half-baths, a 19-seat movie theater, a private lake and two par-three golf holes.

European chalets aren't usually listed for public sale. Like châteaux, many of Europe's finest properties are shopped in private. In Switzerland, some cantons have regulations against foreign ownership, so rentals prevail.

Here, a Klosters chalet commands $13,297 a night during peak season, but is only two minutes from prime ski runs. An Italian property, in the Piedmont region, does one better: It has its own cable car up the mountain. A ski-in, ski-out French chalet, on the Face de Bellevarde piste in Les Carats, rents for almost $100,000 per week during peak season and has its own spa, sauna and massive indoor swimming pool, not to mention a private chef and concierge.

Stateside Stunners

In some U.S. markets, zoning restrictions restrict the supply of top-end ski homes. Cities like Aspen and the areas around Lake Tahoe have significant growth constraints that limit how many homes can be built. Often the combination of national parks, difficult terrain and city regulations mean prime ski areas aren't as susceptible to the sort of overbuilding that's driving market corrections in many locales.

What's more, the highest end of the luxury market has the most immunity to general trends because it's the most supply-constrained. There just aren't many sprawling ski-in, ski-out mansions that are steps from gondolas. Some of the most luxurious include a $43.8 million Tuscan-style estate in Aspen, and a $23 million, 56-acre spread in Park City, Utah.

"We have strong demand from a very wealthy segment of the population across the country, and we have limited supply," says Steve Walker, a broker with Leverich & Carr Real Estate Company in Aspen. He says that downturns in the larger real estate market can have an effect in a place like Aspen, though not necessarily on price. "What does sometimes occur, but hasn't started here yet," he says, "is that it might take longer to sell higher-end properties."

Based on data from Land Title, a Denver title insurance and transaction tracking company, Aspen sales (measured in units) are off from last year, but in dollar terms, 2007 has been at a record high. While sales of middle and low-range properties have slowed, sales at the high end have spiked--a trend seen in other skiing destinations.

"We're expecting the market to continue to correct in the lower to middle price ranges through mid-2008 to the end of 2008," says Susan Lowe, vice president of Chase International, a Lake Tahoe based real estate company. "The high end market should continue to stay extremely strong. I think the wealthy understand the value of a place like Lake Tahoe."

In 2006, there were six homes sold for over $10 million around Lake Tahoe.

So far this year, 10 have been sold, eight on the Nevada side and two on the California side. Before you attribute that to Nevada's tax haven status, keep in mind that if the buyer earns their income in California--or any other state for that matter--Nevada's tax exemptions don't mean much.

And while it may be late in the year, ski home sales activity stays strong in the winter and there has been a conspicuous absence of $30 million plus sales in the ski areas this year.

Just think, it's the perfect gift for the billionaire who has everything.